PREGNANCY RATES AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

ENCOURAGING RESULTS IN DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS

The pregnancy rate is an important indication of how successful a fertility centre is. However, it depends on many factors, including the age of the patient. In principle, one can state the following: The older a woman is, the less likely she is to become pregnant. However, we are achieving pleasing results in our clinic with regard to several age groups. This means that our pregnancy rate with IVF/ICSI is recognizably higher than the relative, age-dependent pregnancy rate in the natural cycle.

To the graphic: In 2018, the pregnancy rates shown after transfer of an average of 1.6 embryos were usually achieved on day 5 after oocyte retrieval. Our goal is to transfer a maximum of two embryos per transfer on the fifth day after follicular puncture.

Pregnancy rate after one transfer cycle

Up to 30 years old
Up to 38 years old
Over 38 years old
Total group

Pregnancy rate after two transfer cycles

Up to 30 years old
Up to 38 years old
Over 38 years old
Total group

Pregnancy rate after three transfer cycles

Up to 30 years old
Up to 38 years old
Over 38 years old
Total group

Data represent cumulative pregnancy rates by artificial insemination in 2017 & 2018.
In particular, cryotransfers after puncture contribute to the good success rates.

Total pregnancy rate

Up to 30 years old
Up to 38 years old
Over 38 years old
Total group

The above pregnancy rates are based on 2018 artificial insemination results. The pregnancy rate per own transfer (ET) after IVF or ICSI treatment and fresh transfer is given.

High birth rates - low multiple birth rate

The effectiveness of a centre's treatments can only be assessed objectively if the groups of patients treated are comparable. However, different patient groups and forms of treatment show significant differences, which is often not sufficiently taken into account in the evaluation. The quality comparison of the German IVF Registry (D-I-R), which we have undergone, provides clarity. The institute publishes an annual evaluation with current results and analyses from 136 fertility centres in Germany, including ours. The pregnancy rates evaluated by the D-I-R are from 2018. irrespective of age, transfer occurred in about 90% of treatments and pregnancy in 31.7% of treatments. Here we are pleased to see our team achieve a higher rate (41.3% in 2018).

The pregnancy rate per embryo transfer is naturally lower in women aged 38 and over. But even with these patients, our fertility centre achieves a pregnancy expectancy of 77% through repeated attempts. With these results we can also compete with internationally leading centres for reproductive medicine.

We focus on transparency
The comparison of our institute with an internationally known centre in Southern Europe showed no relevant qualitative differences in pregnancy and birth rates. However, the significantly lower rate of multiple births in our patients is striking. This is the proof: Our results are also internationally comparable with renowned centres.

Through consistent quality management in the group of patients up to 30 years of age with unimpaired ovarian function, pregnancy rates of up to almost 60%/ET on average and birth rates of over 50%/ET can be achieved in our centre. The individual prognosis depends very much on the age and the respective initial situation. An appropriate prognosis is only possible if the individual factors are taken into account. This requires consistent process quality and group-specific scoring in a sufficiently large patient population.

Who was selected for the study?
In order to compare our process and outcome quality, we selected a group of patients who would be very suitable for oocyte donation on the basis of the prognostic parameters explained. These are patients with more than 2 oocytes with 2 stages of PN in the age group of 19 to 30 years. In addition, we included body mass index (greater than 18.0 and less than 31.0). We then compared this grouping with a similarly composed control group (randomised trial) in the context of a specific scientific question on oocyte donation (oocyte cryopreservation).

What were the differences in success rates?
The prognosis of IVF/ICSI treatment depends on the quality of the oocytes. This is essentially determined by parameters such as age, the number of oocytes capable of fertilisation and, in particular, a sufficient BMI. In oocyte donation, patients with a high fertility potential are always selected for treatment. From this perspective, with largely identical phenotypic parameters, we compared our patient population (n = 581: 16.4% from n = 3550) were selected and compared with an almost similarly described group of oocyte donors (n = 289) from an internationally known centre in Southern Europe.  

CONTINUOUS QUALITY CONTROL

Since the granting of accreditation in mid-2005, we have consistently implemented elaborate quality management measures. In the course of this, we have continuously statistically controlled the pregnancy rates per embryo transfer in more than 7,000 IVF and ICSI cycles together with the Institute for Statistics, Documentation and Epidemiology of the University Hospital of Cologne (Prof. Dr. W. Lehmacher).